In Guayaquil we went to the maritime agent's office in order to get the original
shipping B/L once it is necessary to retrieve the RV from the Port. There we came to learn that there had been a delay in Panama, and the ship - which was scheduled to leave Panama Balboa port on Oct.5th, left on Oct.7th - with an ETA in Manta - Ecuardor,
on the 9th. OK, with docs in hands we took a van from Mantaexpress Transp.Co. and left to the city of Manta. The trip should have taken 3 hours, but...delay at departure...traffic...tire change...passangers getting off...it ended up taking us 4 hours to get
there!

On the way to Manta one passes through several small towns, among which the towns of Montecristi and Jipijapa, where the famous "Panama Hats" are made with the straw taken from the palm tree called "toquilla". The "Panama Hat" is in fact made
in Ecuador in these two towns along with the town of Cuenca. They became famous due to the fact that the workers of the Panama Canal started wearing them as sun protection and because of this fact they ended up getting the name of Panama Hat, in spite of being
made in Ecuador. Daniela, when came to Ecuador took an original one as a present for Daniel, and this trip he had to buy a "few", and I bough myself one,too, of course...

Manta is a fishing town and has a small port. According to the local people has
been developing much lately and the government is improving the port facilities in order to make it become an important port in Ecuador. Manta is known as "The Tuna Fish Capital" of Ecuador. Here we stayed at Cabanas Bacalar Hotel and the next day we went
to the Customs office to check on the schedule of the ship and start the release paper work. Surprise...surprise...The ship before coming to Manta would go to the port in Buenaventura, in Colombia, and was scheduled to get to Manta on Friday morning, but...Friday
was a HOLIDAY...due to their Independence Day...so that no public office would be working that day, neither Saturday or Sunday, of course, so we would be able to resume the procedures only on Monday - October 14th...

What to do during all these days??
Well, like Daniel says, if you come to Ecuador and you do not visit "The Middle of the World"..."The Equator Line"..."Latitud 000"...you haven't visited Ecuador...so, we rented a car and off we went to Quito!!